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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA The inscription contains the two first acts of a hitherto unknown nâtikâ, i.e. a drama of four acts,[1] entitled Pârijâtamañjarî or Vijayaśrî (l. 4). This drama had been composed by the king’s preceptor (râjaguru) Madana, whose family hailed from Gauḍa (Bengal), and who was a descendant of Gaṅgâdhara[2] (l. 3 f.). It was acted for the first time at the spring-festival[3] in the city of Dhârâ (l. 3)─ the modern Dhâr. The opening verse (1) contains the following statement :─ “ On this pair of blank slabs is being written with difficulty the power ─ to be absorbed by the ear─ of the virtues of Bhôja himself who has become incarnate in the form of Arjuna.” Of the two slabs here mentioned, only the first is now available. The second must have borne the two remaining acts of the nâṭikâ. The last verse (76) on the preserved slab runs thus :─ “ This panegyric (praśasti) was engraved by the artist (śilpin) Râmadêva, the son of the excellent sculptor (rûpakâra) Sîhâka.” Here the inscription is called a panegyric. Hence it is very probably that it was composed and engraved in the lifetime of the prince whom it celebrates. This was Arjuna (v. 1) or Arjunavarman (l. 7 and v. 19), king of Dhârâ (l. 9 and v. 6). He belonged to the Paramâra family (l. 13) and was a descendant of the emperor (sârvabhauma) Bhôjadêva (l. 7). The poet represents him as the equal of his ancestor Bhôjadêva (v. 6), and even as an incarnation of Bhôja (v. 1). In verse 3, Bhôjadêva himself is compared to the god Kṛishṇa and to the epic hero Arjuna :─
“ Victorious is Kṛishṇa ; like Kṛishṇa, Arjuna ; (and) like Arjuna, the glorious king Bhôjadêva, who was able to defeat (his enemies) by leaping arrows ;[4] who afforded protection to the whole earth ; who assumed the râdhâ[5] which distressed (his enemies) by wounds from roaring, terrible arrows ;[6] (and who) has his desires speedily fulfilled for a long time at the festive defeat of Gâṅgêya.” The last few words of this verse imply that king Bhôjadêva defeated a prince named Gâṅgêya, just as the epic hero Arjuna killed Bhîshma, whose metronymic was Gâṅgêya. As the well-known Paramâra king Bhôjadêva of Dhârâ was reigning in the first half of the eleventh century,[7] his enemy Gâṅgêya must be identical with the Kalachuri king Gâṅgêya of Tripurî, whose reign fell into the same period.[8]
Arjunavarman, the hero of the drama, is in one place (v. 10) styled ‘ the son of king
Subhaṭa.’ This enables us to identify him with the Paramâra king Arjunavarman, who was
the son of Subhaṭavarman, and whose copper-plate grants are dated in A.D. 1211, 1213 and
1215.[9] The same three grants prove that the new drama was composed in the reign of this
[1] See the definitions in the Daśarûpakam, III. verse 40, and in the Sâhityadarpaṇa, Nirṇaya-Sâgara Press
edition, p. 345, where the Ratnâvalî and Viddhaśâlabhañjikâ are quoted as examples. Others are the Priyadarśikâ,
Karṇasundarî, Kamalinîkalahaṁsa and Vṛishabhânujâ. The prototype of all of them is Kâlidâsa’s Mâlavikâgnimitram, which has however five acts and is therefore styled a nâṭakam.
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